Author Topic: Sound stutter/artifacts from hell  (Read 2722 times)

phobrek

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Hello MusicBee and kindly users. I've got a big technical problem, and I'm hoping that someone here can help me resolve it. It's a problem I've seen discussed in so many forums both at general help sites as well on system/program-specific boards. It seems like it affects a lot of people but remains unresolved for some, perhaps a lot, but at the very least me, and it's driving me nuts.

The issue is a pervasive and increasing sound stutter and artifacting. “Increasing” in that, the longer I'm running my computer for a given session, the more it creeps in, until it's beyond maddening. For a quick example, check my video:

https://youtu.be/j19zMzJ7Tyo

Whereas a music or video file (or game) can begin well enough, over time – and with increasing use of other programs – the interrupts, stutter, and alien-sounding distortion sets in. Though my technical knowledge is across the board low, this issue seems to be related to memory use, and may also be exacerbated by internet connectivity. Beyond that, I lack the understanding and terminology to talk about it, and more analysis by me would probably just be distracting to people that know what they're talking about.

So: this effect started creeping in within hours of installing MusicBee for the first time. Once it started, I 1) almost started to cry and 2) immediately uninstalled MusicBee in the hopes that I could undo what had just been done to my computer. It didn't correct the problem. I rebooted, and the stutter crept back in. I used system restore, to restore to a point a couple of days prior, and rebooted. Sound from Hell continued.

The reason I wanted to cry was that I've experienced this insanity before, for over half a year. From painful experience I know that MusicBee is not the only program that can cause this problem: judging from people's descriptions online, it's not just found in one Windows version or another, or one product or another. But in this instance, on my computer and with its specs, I've at least been able to see that it was installing MusicBee that triggered this problem.

So this isn't the first time I've encountered this maddening issue, but because of my prior experience, in which I was using a nearly-identical computer and setups, mentioning it may help to diagnose things. A friend and I each bought a desktop from Cyberpower several years ago, with nearly-identical components and specs (these are for my current computer):

OS:
Windows 7 Enterprise (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Boot Mode: BIOS (Secure Boot not supported)

Processor:
3.00 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Main Circuit Board:
Board: MS-7350 1.0
Bus Clock: 333 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. V2.3 07/12/2007

Drives:
5500.95 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
2720.38 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
ATAPI iHES112 3 SCSI CdRom Device [Optical drive]
LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1P ATA Device [Optical drive]
Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 5
Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 3
Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 4
Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 6
Seagate Expansion Desk USB Device [Hard drive] (3000.58 GB) -- drive 2, s/n NA4LL0TD
WDC WD10 EACS-00D6B1 SCSI Disk Device (1000.20 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WCAU44888307, SMART Status: Healthy
WDC WD15 EADS-00S2B0 SCSI Disk Device (1500.30 GB) -- drive 1, s/n WD-WCAVY1075593, SMART Status: Healthy

Memory:
6144 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
Slot 'DIMM1' has 1024 MB
Slot 'DIMM3' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM2' has 1024 MB
Slot 'DIMM4' has 2048 MB

Display:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 [Display adapter]
DELL S2309W [Monitor] (23.1"vis, s/n XX-0F898G-XXXXX-93A-0F3L, March 2009)

Multimedia:
High Definition Audio Device
NVIDIA High Definition Audio (4x)
NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
PlayOn Virtual Audio Device

Virus Protection:
avast! Antivirus

Communications:
Linksys WUSB600N Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Network Adapter
NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Possibly maybe somehow relevant software:

AVAST Software - Avast Antivirus Version 11.1.2245.1540
Avast Software - SafeZone Browser Version 1.46.1990.139
Avast Software - VM VirtualBox Version 4.3.30.r573 (64-bit)
Malwarebytes - Anti-Exploit Version 1.08.1.1045
Malwarebytes - Anti-Malware Version 1.0.2.929
Malwarebytes - Anti-Malware Version 3.1.0.0

DivX - for Windows Installer, L:EN;DE;FR;JA, DivX Codec
DivX Converter 6.5.0, DivX Player 6.6.0, DivX Web Player
DivX Content Uploader 1.2.1
DivXNetworks - Config App. Version 2, 0, 0, 1
DivXNetworks - DivX EKG Version 1.0.0.0

Microsoft - .NET Framework Version 2.0.50727.5483 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft - .NET Framework Version 3.0.6920.5011 (64-bit)
Microsoft - .NET Framework Version 4.0.41210.0 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft - CoReXT Version 7.250.4225.0 (64-bit)
Microsoft - Internet Explorer Version 11.00.9600.18123 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft - Silverlight Plug-In Version 5.1.41105.0 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft - Silverlight Version 5.1.41105.0 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft - Windows Installer - Unicode Version 5.0.7600.16385 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft - Windows Live Movie Maker Version 15.4.3508.1109
Microsoft - Windows Live Photo Gallery Version 15.4.3508.1109
Microsoft - Windows Live? Photo Gallery Version 15.4.3508.1109
Microsoft - Windows Media Player Version 12.0.7600.16385 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft - Windows Script Host Version 5.8.7600.16385 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft - Windows Search Version 7.00.7600.16385 (32/64-bit)

NVIDIA - 3D Vision Photo Viewer Version 7.17.13.6143
NVIDIA - Backend Version 20.12.1.0
NVIDIA - Driver Helper Service, Version 361.43 Version 8.17.13.6143 (64-bit)
NVIDIA - GeForce 3D Vision Version 7.17.13.6143
NVIDIA - GeForce Experience Launcher Application Version 2.8.1.21
NVIDIA - GeForce Experience Version 2.8.1.21
NVIDIA - GeForce ExperienceService Version 2.8.1.21 (64-bit)
NVIDIA - Network Service Version 2.4.13.69
NVIDIA - Stereo Vision Control Panel API Server Version 7.17.13.6143
NVIDIA - Streamer Version 4.1.2000.0 (64-bit)
NVIDIA - Streaming Version 4.1.0250.0 (64-bit)

Opera Software - Internet Browser Version 34.0.2036.50
Oracle - Java Platform SE 8 U73 Version 8.0.730.2 (32/64-bit)
Oracle - Java Platform SE 8 Version 8.0.730.2 (32/64-bit)
Oracle - Java Platform SE Auto Updater Version 2.8.73.2
SEIKO EPSON - Enhanced EPSON Bi-directional API Version 2.0.0.0
SEIKO EPSON - EPSON Status Monitor 3 Version 2.01
VideoLAN - VLC media player Version 2,2,1,0


Especially for the time, they were good all-around rigs. Nothing crazy superlative, but decent enough for gaming and various intensive use. After a few solid years, this sound stutter started happening on my computer, and it crept up on me in a way that I failed to identify what I might have done, changed, or installed, to cause it.

I searched the web endlessly, finding many people with this problem, with many fixes being offered, none of which worked for me, nor for many others. I get the sense that many people did what I did... ended up resigned and hopeless. There was never any big Aha! fix that resulted in more than one person cheering that their problem was gone. Much more common was what I experienced, which was possible fix after fix that we hoped would work, that maybe seemed to, briefly, only to have my hopes dashed when it inevitably crept back in. I would go back and forth between being convinced that this or that was the source. I actually learned a fair bit in the process, but none of what I newly semi-understood was enough to fix anything.

I did all kinds of restores, uninstalls, reinstalls, fix-it programs, resets to defaults, registry cleanings, just the whole damn gamut of anything and everything that might possibly help. The one thing I didn't try, and was so reluctant to try, was a complete reformat/reinstall of Windows. It made me think of when you're nauseous and really really really don't want to vomit, but in the end probably should, despite how horrible it might be.

But: my aforementioned friend, that got his computer with the same specs as mine, upgraded. Because he's a god amongst men, he gave me his old computer.

What an incredible relief! Though it was a hassle to reinstall whatever programs and so on, since our original purchase he'd slightly upgraded his video card, memory, and hard drive, so it was a superior rig, to boot (again, specs are the ones listed above). Truly, an awesome friend.

This was several months ago. And in that time, besides being extra-careful about anything I might install or tweak on this machine, I've been outright paranoid about installing any media player beyond VLC. And I experienced no problems whatsoever.

Except... while VLC is a great program, it has little features that a music-lover really wants. With my previous computer, I'd used MediaMonkey with a decent level of satisfaction, and had used it for years before the stutter problem ever occurred. In my campaign of fixing my old problem I'd of course included uninstalls and reinstalls of MM, including older versions of it, in case at some point some update I might have received had been the source of the problem.

I thought that it should be safe to use it again with this computer, but in the end, while I liked that program well enough, I thought there was likely to be better, and from reviews and just looking at it, I figured MusicBee was worth a shot. I didn't install or try any other media-related program: I was too paranoid to be at all free-wheeling in my search for a new player.

And so I installed MusicBee. And I was shot back to Hell.

BUT! OMG! This time I know what the cause is! And as I said, it's not something that only MusicBee is doing. But it's something that installing MusicBee did to my particular system and set-up (which had been at all-default settings, across the board – I was that paranoid to touch or tweak anything, because my previous experience had been so scarring), which I'm guessing some other media program had also done to my other computer. It may have actually been something that an update of MusicMonkey did on my other computer, or some other media-related program entirely, or hell: maybe there was some update to some common driver (in my fix attempts, I updated all kinds of drivers, and at times tried reinstalling older versions of them, ad nauseum) that took something totally innocent or normal these media players were implementing, but for my particular configuration was an unholy horror.

I have to think that something is happening to tie up memory or processors... while the problem is most evident when trying to watch or listen to something, my whole system can end up hiccuping and stalling. But again, I barely know what I'm talking about, and my descriptions might be misleading, so I'll just stop speculating. If someone could please please please help me – I'm willing to put in plenty of time in trying whatever solutions – I would really appreciate it. I know this is all, in the end, a first-world problem, but I have hyperacusis (hypersensitivity to sound) and this is driving me totally nuts.


hiccup

  • Sr. Member
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  • Posts: 7781
Welcome to the forum phobrek.

If your computer was in my hands, I would start by updating the bios, reset, check and tweak the bios settings, so to be sure the motherboard/mem/cpu are working together as well as possible. (there are quite some reports about memory/cpu problems with such motherboard as yours)
Then indeed, I would clean install Windows, and handpick the best/most recent drivers.
Then run some stress-test software to see if everything runs smoothly for a while. (different brands/sizes of memory sometimes presents a problem)

But reading your post this is probably not a road you are prepared to take. Also, to be honest I have some doubts and would not guarantee this would really solve the audio issues you are experiencing.

If I look at your setup, one of the suspects for your audio issues might be the nvidia drivers/software. I had quite some issues with those in the past.
You could try to completely remove all nvidia software and drivers first. (really remove, not only disable)
Then find the most recent and stable nvidia drivers for W7x64, and only install the drivers from that download, not other optionally offered software or codecs.
Maybe even not install the nvidia audio drivers at all, but only recent realtek drivers. (the audio chipset itself is a realtek)

If this is all a bit to risky for you, another manner to try to find the culprit might be to borrow or buy another soundcard (usb perhaps), disable the one onboard, and see if that solves it. That would probably help to at least narrow down your issue.
Last Edit: February 18, 2016, 08:42:31 AM by hiccup